Please, don't tell Ronan about this
by Emjen Enla
Summary: [Complete] Written for the Declan/Adam Prompt Festival on AO3 Someone pounds on Adam's door in the middle of the night. He opens the door to a blood-soaked Declan Lynch. "Don't tell Ronan about this," Declan begs.


**In response to a prompt by Emjen_Enla in the declanadamfest collection on AO3.**

**I don't own the Raven Cycle.**

**Tbh, I'm not sure if I like the way this one turned out, but I guess mediocre Declan content is better than no Declan content, so here you go. Also, yes, I'm answering my own prompt. I'm sorry.**

* * *

People did not come looking for Adam Parrish. For his roommate, Chris? Yes all the time. People were always cycling in and out of the cramped dorm room to visit Chris. That was the main reason Adam didn't spend much time in the dorm. It was easier to study if he went to the library or to a lounge. In fact the only reason he was in the room on Friday nights was because the library closed at six and he needed somewhere to do his homework before working all day on Saturday. Chris went out and partied with his friends and generally didn't come back to the dorm, so Adam had the room to himself.

When someone pounded on the door at three am, Adam's first thought was that Chris was just too drunk to find his keys. He was a little annoyed. He'd just been putting on his pajamas in preparation for bed, now he was going to have to listen to Chris drunkenly rambling for another hour and a half before he'd finally be allowed to sleep before getting up early for work tomorrow. He was half tempted to just leave Chris standing in the hall, but the urge passed swiftly. Sighing, he marched over to the door and pulled it open. "Chris," He said. "I swear you-" and he cut himself off because the person standing outside his door was not Chris.

Declan Lynch smiled at him from his position half slumped against the doorframe. Adam's first impression of him was blood. Blood on his face and in his hair and on his clothes and staining his teeth. There was blood everywhere.

"Don't tell Ronan about this," Declan begged, then his eyes rolled back and he pitched forward.

Adam managed to catch the older boy before he hit the floor. He looked furtively back and forth, but thankfully no one was around. He supposed he could have passed Declan off as drunk, but he didn't want to risk someone seeing the blood. He pulled Declan's deadweight into the room and dumped him on the gross, ancient carpeting before going to lock the door again. Declan shifted a little and moaned. It was the most human sound Adam had ever heard from him and it made his stomach clench.

"Why are you here?" he asked once he'd ascertained that Declan was fully conscious again. "Did something happen to Ronan?"

"Ronan's fine. I wasn't sure where else to go," Declan said. He sounded woozy. Adam wondered how much blood he'd lost. There was quite a bit on his clothes and a jagged slash bisected the front of his clothes. "Matthew's away with friends this weekend."

"What about your girlfriend?" Adam asked somewhat flatly.

"Ashley goes to college in California," Declan said, trying to push himself up on his elbows. "Do you have a first aid kit? I really just need to get patched up before I go home."

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you to the ER?" Adam asked. "That's a lot of blood."

"I'll be fine if you can get me a first aid kit," Declan said tightly.

"Fine, I'll be right back," Adam said. "If you bleed out before I get back, don't say I didn't warn you."

He went out into the hallway and hurried towards the RA's room. Adam didn't have anything more than a couple band-aids himself, but the floor's big first aid kit was kept in the RA's room. Tyler was out partying with everyone else, but he had always been way too vocal about the fact that he never locked his room. Knowing that practically everyone on campus probably knew Tyler Greenfield's room was always unlocked, Adam didn't feel bad about letting himself in and finding the first aid kit where it was shoved haphazardly under the bed. Tyler was lucky he wasn't here looking to steal the TV or Xbox.

Clutching the first aid kit to his chest, Adam made his way back to his room. He expected Declan to still be lying on the floor, but the other boy had picked himself up and was standing with his back to the door in the process of peeling off his blood-soaked sport coat and shirt. He'd already gotten the coat and button down off, and was now struggling with his undershirt.

"You know, it might be better to just cut that off," Adam said. "That way you won't have to lift your arms."

"I'm fine," Declan snarled and yanked the undershirt over his head.

Declan was built the same way as Ronan, albeit just slightly shorter. His body looked a little softer too, though that could have just been because he didn't have a giant tattoo splashed across his back. Adam reminded himself that he wasn't supposed to be looking at his boyfriend's brother like and started to look away, but not fast enough because Declan looked painfully over his shoulder and saw him.

"Can we focus on my currently open wound?" Declan asked, in an unreadable tone. He swayed and sat down heavily on Adam's bed, most likely smearing the blood on his pants all over Adam's blankets and sheets. He was pressing his undershirt against the bloody gash across his stomach. Adam felt like he was going to be sick. He would have thought seeing Gansey literally die in high school would have cured him of all squeamishness, but apparently not.

"Parrish," Declan said sharply. "Focus. Is there a suture kit in that tub you just lugged in here?"

"What?" Adam asked shaking himself. "Sutures?"

"Yes," Declan said like he was speaking to someone very dumb. It would have infuriated Adam if he wasn't already so entirely out of his depth. Declan pulled the undershirt away from his body to reveal a large wound that the nonetheless already beginning to stop bleeding. "I used a powder my father dreamed up to speed up blood coagulation before I drove here," he explained. "Now it needs to be stitched up or it won't heal. Do you know how to do that?"

Adam's stomach clenched at the idea of stitching someone up in his dorm room. "Are you sure you don't want me to take your to the ER?" he asked. "They're professionals and they can give you the good drugs while they do it."

"If you're too squeamish, I'll do it myself," Declan said. "Give me the suture kit."

Adam snatched the box away as Declan reached for it. "You're not sewing yourself up. I'll do it if I need to, but I really think it would be a good idea if you went to the hospital."

"If I go to the hospital they'll ask what happened," Declan said like Adam was someone very dumb. "I can lie as much as I want but that doesn't change the fact that people don't get normally get slashed by medieval longswords in the middle of rural Virginia."

"Medieval _longswords_? What the-"

"Leave it," Declan said, quellingly. "Just help me get this taken care of so we can both get on with our lives."

"Fine," Adam dropped the first aid kit onto the floor and knelt down next to it. He pulled it open and pulled out some sterile wipes. "Move the shirt so I can clean it," he ordered and Declan moved the undershirt cautiously to the side. Now that Adam knew it had been caused by a longsword it looked even more intimidating. There was some kind of strangely multi-colored dust covering the raw edges of wound. When Adam dabbed at it, the dust wiped off easily and the wound bled a little more freely. "Is this that dream dust you mentioned?" Adam asked, holding up the wipe so Declan could see the dust mixed with blood on it.

"Yes, just wipe it off, it'll be fine," Declan said. "And hurry. I have to go in to my internship in the morning."

If Adam had been Gansey he would have said something about how getting slashed by a longsword was more than enough reason to call in sick to your internship, but he was Adam and he understood responsibility so he just went back to cleaning the wound. "Could Ronan dream something like this?"

Declan snorted. "Parrish, Ronan could probably dream a cure for cancer if he tried. Of course, it would be unreplicatable and might or might not stop working when he died, so it would be useless to the population at large, but still…" He trailed off and Adam didn't try to push him for more. It turned out that he really didn't want to think about all the possible undiscovered uses of Ronan's powers.

He finished cleaning the wound sat back on his heels to study it. It wasn't as deep as he'd initially feared it was. It looked like Declan had already been pulling back when the sword had gotten him. That was good, it meant it was likely there was no internal damage.

"Alright," Adam said, taking the suture kit out and opening it to study the contents. "I know how to do this, but it's not going to be pretty. Are you sure you don't want to go to the ER?"

"Do I looked like someone who cares about a scar?" Declan glared. "Just get it over with, Parrish."

"Fine," Adam said, then rummaged through the first aid kit again. "There's no pain medication stronger than Tylenol in here," he said. "That doesn't make any sense, why would they have a suture kit but no real painkillers?"

"I've got a high pain tolerance," Declan said flatly. "You do realize that every moment you waffle about this makes it more likely that your roommate will stumble in on us?"

Adam almost protested that that was unlikely, but with his luck this would be the one night when Chris got back early. He turned his attention back to the suture kit. "Do you want something to bite down on?" he asked.

* * *

As it turned out, Declan wasn't lying about having a high pain tolerance. He barely flinched the entire time Adam was working. In fact, if he hadn't known better, Adam would have thought this whole thing was hurting him a lot more than it was hurting Declan.

Finally the wound was sewn up, Adam bandaged it, perhaps a little clumsily. What could he say? He wasn't a doctor. "Well, you're probably not going to bleed to death anymore," he said, getting up and rubbing his hands along his legs, probably smearing blood along his jeans. "But since you didn't go to the hospital, you don't have access to any antibiotics, which is bad because when I hear the words 'medieval longsword' I think 'very rusty.'"

"It's fine," Declan said. "I can get something from Dad's stores at the Barns on Sunday."

"If you're not dead from a raging infection by then!"

"Parrish…" Declan sighed, reaching for the front of Adam's shirt.

And then they were kissing. Adam missed how they'd gotten there, but all of a sudden their lips which touching. Declan's lips were as dry and cracked as Adam's were and somewhere in the back of his mind he was thinking, _I knew Gansey was lying when he said he and Declan were just casual acquaintances! _Declan's fingers twisted into Adam's shirt and-

Then Adam realized he was kissing Ronan's brother and pulled away, his lips tingling. Declan looked a little surprised as well. He released the front of Adam's shirt and smoothed the fabric down before leaning back. Neither of them spoke. After a moment, Adam bent down and began to clean up the first aid supplies.

"Can I borrow a shirt?" Declan asked. His voice was perfectly level, like nothing had happened, but then again, the oldest Lynch brother had always been the best liar Adam knew.

"Sure," Adam forced out. "There's in the drawer over there."

He heard Declan get stiffly up and cross the room. He didn't look up.

"Do you need help cleaning that up?" Declan asked after a minute. Adam had no choice but to look up now. Declan was wearing one of his plain gray tee-shirts. The well-worn and washed garment looked as wrong on his as it would have looked on Gansey.

"What? No, I've got it," Adam forced out.

"Do you want me to take the first aid kit back to wherever it came from on my way out?" Declan asked.

"You probably shouldn't leave," Adam said. "You're injured. You should rest."

"I also need to get back to my apartment and lock up the dangerous dream object currently hidden in my spare tire well," Declan replied. "Besides, you mentioned that there's nothing but Tylenol in that first-aid kit; I have stronger painkillers there as well."

Adam was willing to bet that was the closest Declan Lynch would ever get to admitting to being in pain. "I really think you should stay here."

"And I really think that would be a bad idea," Declan said, bending carefully down to pick up up his sport coat and button down from the floor, obviously trying not to move his midsection too much. "I really should be going." he straightened back up and looked over at the bed. "I'm sorry for getting blood all over your sheets."

He crossed to the door before and pulled it open. He was half outside before he paused and looked back. "Also, I mentioned this at the beginning, but it would probably be best if Ronan didn't hear about any of this."

And he was gone before Adam could think of anything else to say.


End file.
